Shooting Ourselves in the Food

摘要

Images of people rioting in many countries to protest high prices are vivid reminders of the ongoing food crisis. Rising food prices are eroding the real income of people all over the world, undoing some of the last decades progress in combating poverty. More than 100 million people in developing countries are now at risk of once again falling below the poverty line. Glebal grain prices have more than doubled since early 2006, with over half the jump in prices occurring this year. Record food and oil prices are coupled for the first time in 35 years, threatening to end the golden period of low inflation that has been enjoyed practically worldwide for the past several years. The specter of stagflation haunts us as the cost of food and oil continue to rise, and we have yet to glimpse any light at the end of the tunnel of the current financial mess.